In the past standard open face spinning reels have included a head with a bracket in which a spool is journaled for rotation about a shaft which is ordinarily fixed so that the spool spins on the shaft and may be restrained by a braking mechanism to increase or decrease the drag as line is pulled from a spool rotating on the shaft; however, as is conventional, the shaft is free to reciprocate axially to distribute the line evenly over the spool when it is reeled in. This invention is of a somewhat different structure in that the shaft and spool are keyed for rotation together. The problem with the prior art conventional reels has been that when a fish strikes and takes the line there is, first, no warning and, second, the drag must be preset or adjusted after the fish strikes. If the drag has been preset and is too much then, in some circumstances, the pole, which is quite expensive, and the entire reel may be lost. On the other hand, if the drag is set too loosely, the fish takes the line which plays out quite freely and, quickly, but without a warning, the user must adjust the drag while the fish is running with the line in order to make the drag tight enough to set the hook. In use, when the drag is being adjusted on the prior art conventional reels, as it must be, one hand only can hold the pole while the other must be used to manipulate the drag, which is a disadvantage to say nothing of the fact that the fish cannot be reeled in while the adjustment of the drag takes place.
This invention provides structure which has a warning and the spool is free-spinning, initially, and, in response to the warning, the user engages a locking mechanism which stops the spool and shaft, which are keyed together from free-spinning and is adapted to be moved into engagement with the spinning shaft to lock it in a fixed position so that the only restraining influence on the spool is a preset or predetermined amount of drag.